The Taira clan, also known as the Heike, holds immense authority over Japan. When a young girl, gifted with an odd eye that allows her to see the future, foolishly disrespects the clan, her father pays the price of her crime with his life. Soon after, as fate would have it, Taira no Shigemori—the eldest son of the clan leader—stumbles upon the same unfortunate girl, who now calls herself "Biwa." Biwa informs him that the downfall of the Heike is imminent. After learning of the great injustice Biwa suffered at the Heike's hands, Shigemori vows to take her in and care for her rather than let her be killed.
In an era of rising military tension, the Heike are in the midst of a cunning struggle for power, and bloodstained war is on the horizon. Shigemori, whose eyes allow him to see spirits of the dead, is both anxious and hopeful to prevent his clan's demise. Biwa, however, is reluctant to reveal the future to him and must adapt to her new life filled with both happiness and sorrow in this pivotal chapter in Japanese history.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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KANLen09
The Heike Story, Heike Monogatari, or more objectively documented in Japanese history books as: The Tale of the Heike. No matter what you call this show, I see it as 3 words: a cult following. It's so pleasant, fresh and refreshing to watch a historical work like "The Tale of the Heike" which was already very well documented in the history books throughout centuries as an epic account throughout its many translated derivatives, and the well-known 3-person team of director Naoko Yamada, scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, music composer Kensuke Ushio who were once stationed at KyoAni making "A Silent Voice" and "Liz and the Blue Bird" beforethe well-beloved studio's unfortunate-and-fateful arson tragedy, came together to produce this show being adapted from Hideo Furukawa's 2016 work of the same name, translated into modern Japanese. Which if you read it in context to the series of events, having to see this notable event in animated form, while it will not beat the essence of the original work, at least this show is a statement piece to add to that work.
This 13th-century historical epic depicting the rise and fall of the Taira clan that's set during the Genpei War between 1180-1185, this story comes to us from a 3rd person's POV perspective of Biwa, a young girl and traveling biwa (the instrument) minstrel. And the first thing that you should be aware about Biwa is of the uncommon trope of a character that has heterochromia, which if you have watched shows like Wonder Egg Priority before, you know that there's a legit story to tell behind those pair of differently coloured eyes. And in the case of Biwa, her "origin" story is that she is the daughter of a biwa hoshi (lute priest) who got killed by guards of the Taira clan after she unintentionally insulted them, and she dresses up as a boy in order to avoid detection from the Taira assassins. Biwa is brought into the Taira clan after her blind father got killed through the help of Taira no Shigemori, the next in-line heir to the clan, in the midst of the Genpei War and needing to claim supremacy to spread the Heike name far and wide. Being the eldest son of the monk Kiyomori, the irresponsible and hard-headed leader of the Taira clan, Shigemori is a true taskmaster of what he does to keep his clan alive, no matter the hard tasks and internal strifes between family members (most especially the leader Kiyomori) in concern towards the raging war against their natural enemies, the Genji. Like Biwa, Shigemori is also heterochromic, but as opposed to Biwa foreshadowing the future with her pair of eyes, Shigemori on the other hand, can only see the spirits of the dead. But the two come together because of the fact that they're both heterochromic of seeing the future and who dies in various periods of time, and knowing Biwa's resentment on the Taira Clan for killing her father, this fact is only known in the most secret of secrecy between the two as Biwa is taken into Shigemori's family disguised as the usual orphaned child to be a companion for his wife (Tokuko) and 4 children (Koremori, Sukemori, Kiyotsune and Arimori).
The fact that both Shigemori and Biwa have "merged hands" is just for one sole purpose: to avoid the downfall of the Taira clan (and simultaneously the Heike) and with the amount of foreshadowing done between the two, they make amends to save the people they know that will face death imminent at specific junctures of their lives. But don't forget that as much as Biwa can only do so much to help the loved ones around her, her main role is to serve to chronicle the events of the Taira clan's rise and fall. Playing the biwa as the events are documented through solemn song, Biwa's voice gave some atmospheric pressures thanks to her VA Aoi Yuuki, and the juxtapositions of how both the Taira clan and the Heike are slowly but surely squandered of their control provides a sense of realism for a time period that many of us would've preferred to be in just for a day, and nothing more. Truth be told, I always get goosebumps whenever Biwa plays her lute to depict the winners and losers growing towards the Genpei war, and not just for Aoi Yuuki's distinct vocal performance, but also that Kensuke Ushio's magic for BGM around those periods are the ones that you'll really feel that it hit the hardest as you see people die for glory, valor and especially not to be humiliated by a rival clan like the Genji. Remember, pride back in those days are akin to today's high-standing political positions, only that the olden days have more weight to carry people and moral with them. It's for this reason where the story really shines, and as complex as the Tale of the Heike gets with many characters, locations and motives that you will not understand if you're that type of person who likes to have a fix on the content, but it's meant to tell a much bigger story: a larger than life story that only some like Biwa have the privilege to witness while helping others out of their rut if it's possible. We are also seeing this in a 3rd person perspective, so we're also in Biwa's shoes to really see what'll happen in this epic journey of proportions unimaginable. Your mileage may vary depending on whether it makes or breaks your experience.
Historical work like this, there's bound to have characters which may seem like a lot of actors running around a traditional town going places, and unless you're the type to really analyze what these characters add to the mix (I sure as hell understood), then this will also prove as a miss point to you. I have watched many historical live-action dramas that has the setting be like this (most of it are Chinese-based but it's similar), and can largely understand the adage of "too much cooks spoil the broth". But for a show that's based solely on this time period, you have to understand that there's a lot going on under the hood from royal families to ordinary townsfolk, because every fateful decision will be carried down to the people, and these decisions have serious implications to affect not tens but hundreds and thousands of people, affiliated or not. For example, taking Biwa into context as she journeys and dictates the life of a Heike, there's not one single person that is the sole cause for many to act. It's through meticulous and calculated actions to think for your own people, starting from the top-down royalty, and when pride and ego comes into the mix for characters like Kiyomori, the downfall is just as striking as the rise to fame, even if albeit a short-lived one. Everyone's decision matters, and not one character is wasted because he/she feels redundant to the entire story, which says a lot about character dynamics, especially for one rooted in the historical complex.
Unsurprisingly, you should already know of the 3 names by now: Naoko Yamada, Reiko Yoshida, Kensuke Ushio. These 2 ladies and a man have very prolific portfolios of works to their name, and the departure from KyoAni to Masaaki Yuasa's studio Science SARU marks a brand new chapter where this feels like the old Madhouse standards of Masao Maruyama being flexible with his staff to do what they want to do with creative freedom. Nevertheless, The Heike Story also really glows with vibrancy and colour throughout the entire show, and since "Eizōuken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!" a.k.a "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" was a significant mouthpiece for Masaaki Yuasa's studio in 2020, that excellence carries over in this show, and I can never get bored of watching visuals done the same that are made different which gives it a very unique feel of watercolour oozes. It's mouth-droppingly gorgeous, I'd say so myself. Making things better is the OST for the show, part of which I've already covered especially for Biwa's song recital tunes. Hitsuji Bungaku's OP is really good that's not worth even an episode's skip, and agraph feat. ANI's ED "unified perspective"...I don't know if you're feeling this with me, but there's a sense of duality, not just with the black-and-white visuals. It almost seems condescending to have monochrome colours to show Biwa's state of mind, and I guess the two-toned, mostly instrumental song is there to provide context of perspectives that somehow, work really well to give a ghastly vibe.
Does it really hurt for me to say that I want more of the trio's work portfolio, now that The Heike Story is offically added into the list that stands alongside KyoAni's films? Hell yeah, I suppose. The consensus is that you don't just watch shows that are done by well-enough reputable people, entities or even companies, because what concerns us is the real meat of the show and its contents, and for a work that's based on a centuries-old book, The Heike Story is a story worth telling for the many generations to come, and you and I both form the cult that will spread this underrated work that has gone under the radar for time past and present. Let this story not be gone and left in the dust in the future, and I applaud Naoko Yamada, Reiko Yoshida and Kensuke Ushio for the substantial effort for this underrated anime that's one hell of a learning journey through Japanese history.
SingleH
I love Yamada Naoko, and the last thing I expected this to be was a disappointment. Think about whether or not you'd be excited to watch a light novel adaptation because its fans swore by it. Now replace “light novel” with "14th century epic chronicle,” and instead of getting an adaptation which enlivens the story, you get the screenwriters reading the SparkNotes summary of the original text out loud while periodically inserting their own headcanon at the most inopportune times and reinterpreting the setting in a similarly jarring fashion. A historical text of this nature had simply too much ground to cover, and an elevenepisode TV anime didn’t give them nearly enough time to do so. They had to juggle the half-baked emotional lives of the Taira Clan, the manufactured backstory and narrative relevance of their anime original protagonist, Biwa, and the extensive formal narration sequences stringing the story together. Needless to say, the resulting anime is a bit of a mess. What’s worse is I know this is all most likely Yamada’s own fault. A director has a team of episode directors and storyboarders on projects not because they don't want to do all the directing themselves, but because most of their time is spent being showrunners who oversee creative decision making, and it seems KyoAni's tightly knit team and the constant presence of Ishihara and Takemoto really supported her more than anyone originally thought. Deciding to add so much anime original content only to cram the rest in with it was stupid, and it quickly became clear Reiko Yoshida had no idea how to pace such an unruly source material, the likes of which she's never handled before.
Anyone who hasn’t read the original text will find this rushed adaptation to be completely impenetrable. However, considering this show’s lukewarm reception even in Japan, any source material unfamiliarity which international viewers may have isn’t really the problem. The show is just plain boring, and everyone other than Biwa has the presence of a completely forgettable potato. Speaking of Biwa, this show feels like feudal Japan sanitized for the social justice generation. Yes, underage arranged marriages are bad. War is bad. Classism is bad. But these are all fundamental aspects of feudal Japanese society, and to have our obnoxious little Greta Thunberg protagonist scream in the faces of warlords about their moral bankruptcy and have them respond with goofy anime smiles and laughter instead of doling out punishment is just plain stupid. AstralBread wrote a preliminary review where he described Biwa as a protagonist who “simultaneously has zero presence [and] is a giant eyesore,” and I couldn’t have said it better myself. The story tries to prioritize a vague sense of climax towards the end, but in the early episodes, it absolutely refuses to make any necessary cuts. They’ll sideline important characters to focus on those who quickly lose relevance without even including their whole story because limited screen time didn’t allow, so what you’re inevitably left with is a bloated cast of increasingly inaccessible names and frustratingly identical faces, an anime original and out-of-place protagonist who gets inserted into plotlines she obviously has no place in, and partially developed characters with butchered backstories to whom you say goodbye shortly after meeting.
The animation is usually fantastic, which is surprising considering Science Saru has always been an absolute clown show. Yuasa burned out as soon as he realized producers couldn’t be artists, and he put Eun-Young Choi in charge of the studio despite being deeply out of her depth. They hire way too many foreigners, many of whom are total amateurs and not used to Japanese work ethic, and worst of all, they take on more projects than they can realistically handle as a studio. They were doomed from the start, and up until now, they’ve been incapable of making even a ten episode anime worth a shit for Netflix, one of the richest entertainment companies on the planet. I figured there was no way they would be able to keep up with Yamada's unrealistic KyoAni standards, and the production would fall apart as soon as she failed to deal with the industry’s incompetence plaguing a project of hers for the first time in her sheltered career. However, I can’t even grant them this, because their chosen color palette is so dry and dull, the animation can look bland even when it moves well. This is yet another case where I’m forced to blame Yamada herself, because the Director of Photography, Kazuto Izumita, worked on absolutely gorgeous anime like Great Pretender, Ousama Ranking, and Rolling☆Girls, so it can’t possibly be one of those cases where the DOP wasn’t supervised closely enough by the director. She obviously had a vision, and it obviously didn’t work. It’s a respectable passion project, and it has lots of beautiful shots and impressive sequences of animation, but it’s the most style-over-substance rendition of classic literature you could possibly imagine.
Thank you for reading.
Spirit_Chaser
Heike Monogatari is a beautiful series rich of meaningful emotions that the viewers will come to experience. It feels like a dream that slowly turns into a nightmare. It's a series that feels it has the same spirit Odd Taxi and Sonny Boy had. That being that it's a passion project trying to sincerely write a good series that doesn't use the cheap types of tactics mainstream anime uses to pull in viewers. I love anime that take risks, though they become the highlights of the season, the dedicated viewers have to accept that hardly anyone will watch them or appreciate what they tried todo. This series has flaws, but what frustrates me more is the mob of people who have lost touch of what writes even a decent series. Thus, trash like Mushoku Tensei and 86 become the most popular ones; the ones that will be hailed as masterpieces in the years to come, while a series like this, that is significantly better, will fall into obscurity and though appreciated, that group will be small. That is the fate of anime like this and that's an even greater tragedy.
Biwa goes on with the ability to see people's futures. For her it's suffering to see what she has to see, and her frustration goes on as she feels powerless to be able to do anything about what the visions show.
The Heike are filled with loveable and well written characters. They struggle to carry their clan as they travel, look for support, and battle against those that want them to disappear.
As for the flaws, the story was obviously told very fast since the staff only had 11 episodes. Some of the characters I liked the most felt rushed. The music, though I enjoyed it, felt strange in the way it was executed. The opening and the ending are my favorite of the season, however. The fights are sometimes grandiose, and sometimes slideshows.
Despite it's flaws, it's a solid 9/10, and I hope more passion projects with the skill and ambition of this appear soon to relieve me of mainstream anime.
Dramaddict
While many people were kindly disheartened by Naoko Yamada’s departure from KyoAni, I see it as a logical step forward in her already auspicious career. Yes, KyoAni is unquestionably an industry leader, pushing the envelope on how visually marvelous anime can be, but at the end of the day, KyoAni still caters to a broad audience—they wouldn’t be as successful as they are if they didn’t. With her latest films being “A Silent Voice” and “Liz to Aoi Tori,” Yamada has been dipping her toes into more experimental media for some time now, and with that requires creative freedom not as easily available at thatbeloved studio. So her transition to Science SARU—one of the most experimental anime studio to come out in recent years—serves as an exciting foray into the world of arthouse; and adapting a poem as ancient and dense as “The Tale of the Heike” makes this project all the more ambitious.
But regrettably, that ambition might’ve been too great.
For those who don’t know, Heike Monogatari is basically the Japanese equivalent of the Iliad and Odyssey; it’s a tale as old as time passed down through many generations. To adapt such a story would be a task so gargantuan, even the most talented of screenwriters would cower at its premise. And yet, Reiko Yoshida—who’s pretty much written all of Yamada’s works—stepped up to the challenge. I respect it, but the narrative was...messy, to say the least. The show kind of expects you to fill in the gaps yourself, but as a Westerner who isn’t too familiar with Japanese literature, the plot lost me more often than I’d like to admit. But that isn’t my fault. The job of a show is to tell a story, not to tell a story I’m supposed to already know: it’s just poor adaptation. There are way too many characters sitting around and talking about the plot, things just happen and I have no idea why, and it has the same problem as The Godfather where there’s a bajillion characters I can’t keep track of (it doesn’t help when so many of their names end with “mori”. Yamada just wasn’t set up for success with such a convoluted script adding so much confusion to the whole experience. On top of that, it was bizarre to see a script play so far away from her strengths as a director.
As evident from interviews in the past, Yamada describes herself as a “method” director, taking pride in her ability to get close to her characters’ thoughts and frame of mind. And looking at her filmography, this is her first time directing a story that isn’t set in modern-day Japan, and she seems out of her depth here. Biwa, as an observer-type main character, has next to no presence in the story for most of the runtime, and for a historical-political drama, none of the other characters were all that relatable either; it felt like she was grasping at straws when trying to portray them. Why? There’s too much dialogue. Her characters aren’t allowed enough space to express themselves. Yamada’s style focuses on empathy and all the little emotions we hide in our body language and facial expressions. A common theme among all of Yamada’s works is the deep anxieties the future can hold, and that fear has always been communicated through subtext. I don’t even want to call it subtext, because that implies there are lines of text to read in-between, and her best moments are when there IS no dialogue, conveying emotions purely through audiovisual mastery.
Oftentimes, Yamada’s characters aren’t able to process the emotions they’re dealt with. The beauty of K-on is in the senior's naive ignorance of their transient lifestyle. Tamako Love Story captures the unease of facing others’ feelings, including your own. And if “A Silent Voice” didn’t make this clear, emotions are more than just words; it’s not something that can be described, only felt, and she’s consistently delivered on that delicate intimacy until now. Heike Monogatari falls into that anime trap where everything’s overexplained. Characters that somehow have the self-awareness to psychoanalyze everyone including themselves is a trope I despise in drama. So to have Biwa, a literal child, flat-out say that she’s “frightened of the future” in such a pronounced manner was jarring, to say the least.
To make matters worse, the show feels tonally all over the place because Yamada was trying to get TOO artsy with it. I never thought Yamada would be one to use vapid metaphorical imagery, but alas, I was wrong. The most egregious example is in episode 6 where Kiyomori sees smoke in the shape of skulls to symbolize his guilt and fear of the recently deceased. Wow, how deep. I swear it looked like a parody scene straight out of Adventure Time; it was horrendous. If it was any other director, I would’ve burst out laughing.
And the final nail in the coffin to this bizarre mess of a show is the music. Ushio Kensuke—a composer that previously worked with Yamada on “A Silent Voice” and “Liz to Aoi Tori”—has started to become monotonous. It feels like he’s recycling old ideas in an almost self-plagiarizing way. His music is wonderfully hypnotic and captivating, seducing his audience into a more contemplative headspace to explore the character’s emotions. It was gorgeous, really, but this time felt lackluster and out of place. There were moments with goofy percussion, then 2 seconds later comes the more metronomic pulse of a sentimental piano. Instead of easing the audience into a lull, he’s just telling us how we’re supposed to feel, and that’s annoying. Also, for a period piece, I’m not a fan of him using modern instruments in the soundtrack. Sure, he made sick music in “Devilman:Crybaby” and “Ping Pong the Animation,” but why the hell am I listening to a brisk techno beat in a show set in the Heian Era? And it’s not like it’s a fusion of culture like Samurai Champloo.
I honestly think the biggest crime here is the rushed pre-production. I didn’t think Yamada would resort to the occasional still image. Naoko Yamada is a director that excels with time. Back in KyoAni, she had the liberty to completely redo K-on’s character design (a decision that paid off dearly) and she had the luxury to spend 2 trips to London in preparation for K-on the Movie. From what I can tell, Science SARU seems to be facing overproduction issues to the point that Masaaki Yuasa—a director synonymous with the studio—says he himself is burnt out and needs a break. That’s why Yamada’s here. They’re trying to look for freelance directors to diversify their catalog so Yuasa doesn’t have to do everything himself. A classic tale of too much anime, not enough workers. It’s depressing, really.
I know I’ve been mostly negative on this review, but that’s only because of my exorbitant expectations for the show. I mean, it’s not all bad. I liked some of the flower imagery. Whenever older Biwa starts hacking away at the biwa (what a dumb idea for a character name) with an intense staccato, it gave me chills. I love the background and how it gives it off the feeling of an old scroll. And I especially love the shots where Biwa is framed with one eye and the other is hidden off-camera. Depending on what eye is shown, it conveys a lot of what she’s thinking.
Everything that could’ve gone wrong went horribly wrong, but Yamada still managed to pull out a show that looks better than the vast majority of anime I’ve seen. It was too artsy, too ambitious, but I’d rather have it be too ambitious than not at all. This shows that Yamada is still a top-tier director, but also a painful reminder that no artist is infallible. Despite all of that, Yamada continues to be my most favorite director—not just in anime, but across all media. Having one disappointing project doesn’t change the fact that she created what I believe to be 4 consecutive masterpieces, nor does it diminish the deep catharsis they brought me at points in life I needed it the most. Sure, it could be that this new direction is actually pretty good and I’m too close-minded to see her vision, so I do look forward to revisiting Heike Monogatari after several months of reflection.
Thanks for reading!
umiygm
"Tomorrow. The next day. After this. In the future. Far in the future. Even farther. One day. Now I can look up for the future. Good things happen too." How do we overcome suffering and how stories that have been told over and over again through generations can help us accept the nature of life, it's ups and downs? The director Naoko Yamada was one of the survivors of the arson at Kyoani studios in 2019 and her first big work after this awful trauma is the retelling of what is arguably the most famous story of Japan, and the way I see it, this haseverything to do with the events of 2019.
The Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari) is a work of historical fiction describing the events of the Genpei War during the end of the 11th century, but these facts are know to anyone nowadays. Just like the main character, we can glance "into the future" and read the future of each one of the characters that is presented to us during the series, so what's the point?
The point, I believe, is the deeper meaning behind the original tale and is expressed in the quote from the anime above, among other scenes. We suffer with the tides of life. Nature teaches us about the impermanence, the mighty fall, those who live happily today might suffer tomorrow. And yet, life goes on. Accepting impermanence as the real truth of life and remembering those we lost not with grief but with gratitude can help us overcome whatever might happen. Just like in the period described at the tale, we too live in a period of rapidly change in society, big historical events happening at our doorstep, and we might see ourselves as victims of chance and the fast changing of tides. But the acceptance of impermanence and the memory of the past can help us endure and acquire wisdow. Just like no power, happiness and good fortune lasts forever (the lesson the Taira clan learned the hard way), so is suffering and pain. After all, good things happen too, and no matter how hard things might be, there should still be a reason to look up for the future.
On a technical level, this work is a masterpiece. The exposition being played by the biwa player singing the respective parts of the original tale reminds you that this is a story that has been told through oral tradition, at the same time, the mixture of modern music makes the quick description of battles and political events more dynamic. Overall, the story chooses to focus more on the characters of the Heike clan than on the battles, which for the most part is a great choice. Special mention to Saori Hayami as Tokuko, which was simply the perfect choice, specially in the last episode where you can really hear the director speaking through the character on the themes I talked above. One small issue is that the events and characters are hard to follow if you never heard of the story before, but nowadays with the internet, an overview of the events is at one click distance, and I don't think the goal of the anime was to give a historically complete description of the events anyway. Also props to Aoi Yuuki's biwa and her singing of the tale. I would totally buy a complete version of the tale singed by her if that ever becomes available.
In short, don't let yourself be discouraged by not knowing about the actual history behind it before watching. If you really get interested, you would be falling into the Heike Monogatari rabbit-hole sooner than you think. Go ahead and enjoy the most beautiful animation of 2021.
inim
13th century tragic epic about the fall of the house of Heike in the Genpei civil war (1180-85), marking the begin of Japan's middle ages and samurai rule. The jaw dropping beautiful images and cinematography focus on the period's flair and character emotions. Think: Shakespeare rather than detailed history lesson. The camera work is fantastic, Naoko Yamada didn't fall into the trap to give us more of the same such as her trademark leg shots. Her new shticks are asymmetric image composition, super-closeup into faces, and objects (pots, pillars, ...) between the camera and the scene. And the occasional leg shot nevertheless. This comes on topof her new employer's (Science SARU) sophisticated CG. Screw you, Mappa and ufotable, this is better. More impressive details include the art direction which resembles the ancient watercolor style (like in Takahata's Kaguya-hime) and highly detailed background images. The latter of course styled after traditional Japanese art from the early middle ages. All combined, this easily results in the visually most impressive show of the year.
The story itself takes place before the Japanese middle ages (before 1185) and was first written down in ca. 1330. Until very recently there was no translation usable for somebody who is not a scholar, and the text fills about 800-1000 pages in print. The social realities we see are as ancient as the language used to describe them, a modern Japanese couldn't read or understand either. This epic can be compared to the raw material of the Canterbury Tales, the Nibelungen Lied or the King Arthur legend. The show dares to cover all 1000 pages, i.e. the story is told from beginning to the bitter end.
Yamada's approach to the heavy lifting of telling this beast of a story works. She is historically correct in all details mentioned, but it's not important for the viewer to pick up everything. It certainly improves the experience to know the historical facts, yet not knowing them doesn't kill the fun. That's because she makes the emotions, internal drivers and characters of the (many) players visible. Just like Shakespeare focuses on that in his many tragedies about the Kings of England. It's drama, it's persons, it's tragedy - not a history lesson. This includes the courage to have time leaps and gaps, an episode may skip details and events of the more boring years of this decades spanning narrative.
What truly helps here is Yamada's ability of "show don't tell", working with body language, and proficiency with camera techniques. For example putting a pillar in front of the scene creates an emotion in the viewer as if they peeked from a hideout. So there is no need to explain that we are witnessing a secret meeting to conspire against the emperor anymore. We intuitively feel it. With compact visual story telling like that, she maxes out the short runtime of only 11 episodes.
Sound and music mix ancient and modern styles. A memorable trip hop ED meets traditional Japanese song accompanied by the biwa. The sound editing is in line with the high production values and supports the powerful images without stealing the show from them.
I consider Heike Monogatari a future classic, and the next step in Naoko Yamada's growth into Japan's most important and gifted anime director alive (RIP, Satoshi Kon). It's been a long way from K-On!'s moe blobs to this epic, and I hope she isn't resting on her fame any time soon.
FlexySpagoot
This show is one I'm not really sure how to recommend, as when I read through the already-written reviews to look for common criticisms and compliments from other people that I can either support or refute, I found that there were 2 main problems people had with Heike Monogatari. Which is that it a. was too confusing, and b. that the protagonist Biwa that was original to this adaptation didn't really add anything and just took away screen time and exacerbated the previous problem. I personally agree with the second issue, from what I have heard and found online the real Heike Monogatari was quite thelong tale, with one of the earlier translations spanning 800 pages. There was no damn way they were going to fit all of that stuff into their quaint 11 episodes, and I think this was the main cause of pretty much everybody's problems. The addition of Biwa certainly did not help with this problem in any way. I thought she was a fine character (other than her absurdly round cheeks in that one shot in the OP), but she really doesn't do much of substance in terms of the actual plot, and her individual story isn't really worth cutting out more of the main plot, which was way more interesting. I will say that her being a blind (at the end I guess that's a spoiler but don't get mad at me its in the synopsis) biwa player was a nice touch considering the most widely accepted version of the story was compiled by a blind monk from a bunch of stories passed down by other monks who chanted the tale with the accompaniment of a biwa. Other than that neat little factoid she wasn't really that necessary and was definitely a bit of a detriment to the story as a whole.
The other problem is a bit more of a subjective one. Many people said that Heike Monogatari confused them, even some who had read the original work. The thing is that I personally never got that confused, so I'm not really sure what to say about this one. I can definitely see how it could be a problem, it is a political drama after all, and does have quite a few characters that you need to keep track of, many of which happen to annoyingly have names that all end with -mori. I just personally didn't find it too confusing, but since quite a few people did, I think it is pretty important that anybody planning on watching Heike Monogatari keeps this in mind before and as they do.
Now enough about what I and other people didn't like about Heike Monogatari, what did I like about it?
Quite a bit, I think one of the strongest aspects was definitely the art. The soft color palette was really appealing and nice to look at, and gave everything a nice and natural look. The characters themselves also all had pretty distinct designs, which definitely helped me tell apart my -mori's from one another. There were also a few shots in some of the battle scenes that really reminded me of the style of traditional Japanese artwork, with sprawling scenes with multiple little things all happening at the same time. I think the visuals were fantastic, and really stood out to me.
Despite how it was confusing to many, I also really enjoyed the main plot of Heike Monogatari. I didn't know it but I guess I really like historical political dramas. It also just made me realize how much more awesome and cool history there is out there. Growing up in the US you really just learn about US history and European history, but Heike Monogatari has really strengthened my fascination with how much more history there is out there, and how much more infinitely interesting it can be than Teddy Roosevelt.
Some people knocked the characters of Heike Monogatari for not really being relatable, which yes I can agree with, but I feel that sort of misses the point. This is a historical work, and while some changes can be made in the fine details of these characters, they still are all people from almost 1000 years ago, and really can't be expected to be that relatable to us inhabitants of the 21st century. So instead I think its more fair to base them off of how memorable or interesting they are, and in that aspect I think they do just fine. While I may not remember some of their names (I still haven't got the hang of memorizing foreign names) I clearly remember and probably will remember plenty of them. Some of them were interesting people, and they all were a part of the story of the Heike.
In conclusion I think this has been one of my favorite shows of the Fall 2021 season. It's narrative really gripped me from the start and kept that grip strong the whole way through. It also gave me a deeper appreciation and fascination with traditional Japanese culture and even taught me a bit of history while it was at it. As long as you think you'll be able to keep up with the narrative without getting too confused I can definitely recommend this show, it was a great experience for me and I hope any other future viewers will feel the same.
Kiyoharu820
A SPOILER FREE REVIEW OF HEIKE MONOGATARI BY A JAPANESE STUDIES ACADEMIC As someone who has studied and read much of the Heike Monogatari, and has a very deep interest in Japanese art, history and culture, I can confidently say that this anime is a celebration of the past thousand years of Japanese art. It is artistically very unique, preferring to be faithfal to traditional arts rather than modern styles of anime that the director, Naoko Yamada, normally does. Unlike the hard defined outlines of most anime, the character outlines are thin, imitating the styles present in Japaneses crolls. Instead of unique hair, facial, and body designpresent in most anime, the distinguishing trait between characters is their kimono or armor, as was typical in Japanese traditional art. The series continues this traditional artistic motif with the backgrounds having a rough filter looking as if painted onto wood using limited colors, identical to Japanese woodblock prints. Men are depicted with their eboshi hats and strokes of facial hair, while women are depicted with their drawn-on eyebrows, long black hair, and layered kimono. From start to finish, it presents an animated version of Japanese art techniques that is centuries old.
The story is slightly altered but the general themes and plot are all faithfully adapted. Much of the dialogue is identical to what is given in the original work, and any important scenes track with what is present in the text.
Biwa, a character not present in the original, is a wonderful addition. To those who know Heike Monogatari, like many Japanese, Biwa's existence outside of the character drama and clan politics as well as her future vision is an audience stand-in. She is viewing this entire tale from the outside, and she is aware of the ending. She understands that the ego and arrogance of the Taira will be their downfall. To her, these scenes of development and drama between all the characters feel all for naught as she know their fate. We, as the viewer feel the same. To us, like Biwa, there is an intense dramatic irony filled with dread. Their will not last, their anger will not last, their happiness will not last. As it said in the Heike Monogatari's iconic opening poem, “The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. The proud do not endure, like a passing dream on a night in spring; the mighty fall at last, to be no more than dust before the wind.”
SgtSalamander
Heike Monogatari is a poignant tale that relates the tragedy of the Heike clan, and does so with lavish, effulgent beauty, wreathed in symbolism and saturated in a sense of humanity not usually granted to the Heike in the retelling of their story, that family that flew too close to the sun. This is a magnificent retelling of a classic story rooted in history, resulting in a profoundly moving work of art. The story is the strongest part of this anime, as it is a masterful example of tragic beauty- through the addition of a clairvoyant young girl, you learnthe fates of the Heike, and even so, the story endears them to you. Even through all their pride and their sin, you are treated to these characters as people, and the Heike as a family. It is flawlessly constructed, and manages to imbue its characters with a rare level of interest, down to the most insignificant storylines. It feels arresting in a classic, theatrical sense, grand and Shakespearean with all the life and color that entails, but somehow more earnest, more grounded and genuine throughout. From the frantic glimpses of coming death, to quiet moments beneath the moon, the heated pitch of battle, or the simple joys of a lighthearted song, it all feels real, it feels like life in all the ways it should. The way the story handles its motifs of impermanence, of grief, of duty and destiny and fulfillment, feels mature and complex in every moment, striking in every symbol it presents. In short, it is totally enthralling, and I cannot possibly heap enough praises upon its construction.
The art is a close second, as it, too, possesses a rare excellence. On the face of it, it looks totally unique, completely unlike anything else I've seen thus far, and that alone is impressive in its own right. It employs the use of a traditional Japanese color palate, as well as soft gradients and a kind of visual texture to everything onscreen so as to invoke the actual works of art which first depicted them. In this way, it feels otherworldly, but also elegant, precise, and in a way, more prescient than if it had gone with a more standard or a more realistic style. It fits this anime perfectly, and acts as a visual medium for many of the symbols and motifs that the story conveys, like delicate flower petals blowing away in the wind, or the focus on water as the source of the Heike's power as well as the implications it has for their ultimate fate. even beyond this ethereal quality, it is also just technically very impressive, especially in the fluidity of its animation, like the choreography of its fight scenes, its portrayal of everyday life, and of course the incredibly detailed emotion that plays on the face of every single character, even down to the most minute creasing of the eyebrows. It's almost more heavy with symbolism and raw emotion than the story itself. One caveat here is that sometimes the faces of certain characters look a little too stylized, resulting in a rather unpleasant face, but these instances are thankfully limited to only a couple of characters, and by no means does this have a notable impact on the art direction as a whole, which is still absolutely stunning.
The sound, too, is very, very strong. The OST is deeply moving, combining the sounds of traditional Japanese music, like the Biwa and the Japanese flute, with deeply emotional elements like a meandering, contemplative piano, and a variety of string instruments. This creates a mystical, almost sacred atmosphere, a space in which the story and its visuals can more deeply affect you than would otherwise be the case. The sounds of life are also rich and detailed, and furthermore the voice work is lively and impassioned, carrying the full weight of emotion that they intend, which hits heavy each and every time, be it a final goodbye or a first hello, or getting to know a character's innermost thoughts and worries- through it all, it often feels like they are speaking directly to you.
Speaking of which, the characters are, like most everything else in this anime, simply incredible. They feel like the movers of the story rather than being subjects moved by it, like everything hangs on their actions, their doubts, their struggles, even when you are treated to a glimpse of the future, and a foreknowledge of where these actions will one day lead, it still feels like these things happen because of them rather than to them. At times, I'll admit, it can be difficult to keep track of all the characters, as the who's who of the story gets pretty crowded, but this doesn't end up detracting from the anime in the end, as the most important characters are ones you are sure to be familiar with throughout the entire show. Of them, my favorites are Biwa and Shigemori. I like Biwa for her unique place in the tale as a tragic storyteller, who can tell the future but do nothing about it, who can merely witness and later relate the story of these people who took her in and raised her. Her reticence to tell the future at all also ties into this, as her abilities conflict with her innate desire for companionship and belonging. She is the perfect addition to this classic story, and I feel is a stroke of narrative genius. Then, Shigemori earns his spot as his namesake implies, 'the conscience of the Heike'. He is a kind, honorable man, who nonetheless does everything in his power to do right by his family, their legacy, and most of all, their wellbeing. He gives everything towards this end, and in a way, blown along by the winds of fate set aloft by his father Kiyomori and his ravenous ambition, he is very much like that girl he took in, Biwa. Even though he can't see the future like her, he in a way feels the same about his family. he knows where it's heading, and he can't stop it. He is the archetypal embodiment of beautiful tragedy, a man of honor at the crossroads of conflicting duties and weighed down beneath the yolk of history. Overall, Heike Monogatari is a true work of art, a dramatic, tragic masterpiece that relates one of Japan's most striking historical periods with a narrative skill and visual mastery rarely seen in the medium. Watch this anime- it is worth every second of your time.
tabarnhart
It's hard to give any show a 10, but I find I can't give Heike Monogatari anything but. It's not perfect, but it's just so damn good. Many shows start well then fizzle; others build to an anticipated climax that goes thud. HM never builds in that way; too much history and too many characters are coming and going for that kind of suspense. But each episode's story is a gem that works to make the too-short series hold together well. And I imagine rewatching them without the week's delay will make it even better since characters can be better kept in mind. The ending was amazing.It was heart-breaking, and the music underscored the pain. No surprise it reminds me of the ending of Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! Both came from Science SARU and the director was one of KyoAni's greats. We knew the outcome from episode 2, but that inevitability never seemed to be in place. And then suddenly it was, and all of a sudden, everything clicked and it was just too sad but done not with the usual melodramatic flourishes but subtlety and care.
Science SARU has become one of the best studios around. I cannot wait for what they do next. And in a few weeks, Im going to binge this and I bet it'll be even better. Without a doubt, the show of the year, just pipping Super Cub
onespankman
Heike Monogatari is a 2021 adaptation of a 2016 translation of a 14th century epic account of the 12th century fall of the Heike clan, and it's as epic as that history suggests. The story can be a little hard to follow, often long blocks of exposition are given about characters we haven’t met. Massive story beats come and go as if inconsequential, and multi-year time skips pass without mention. Each episode feels far longer than its runtime. This results in a very distant perspective for the audience. This perspective is dry, and loses some emotional impact, but feels a grand, epic, tale. I cansay with confidence that there’s no other anime like it. The closest point of comparison I can find is War and Peace.
While the story is presented from a third person POV, our perspective shares major overlap with main character Biwa, a biwa player with the power to see the future who doesn’t appear in the original story. Biwa doesn’t change at all through time skips and major political upheaval. I found myself relating to Biwa, she views the story from as detached a perspective as the audience. Aoi Yuuki portrays her perfectly.
The rest of the cast is strong as well, particularly Shigemori, Tokuko, and Sukemori.
Heike Monogatari is elevated by its fantastic art and animation.The backgrounds are beautiful, resembling classic Japanese paintings, and the animation is consistently good. It is mind blowing when it dips into sakuga.
This is directed by Naoko Yamada, the KyoAni alumnus responsible for directing “K-On!” and “Koe no Katachi”, and the direction is exceptional.
The soundtrack is by “Koe no Katachi” composer Kensuke Ushio, and it’s as beautiful as that resume suggests. The show’s biwa and flute performances are great as well.
The OP features great visuals and a good song, but loses points for slight tonal dissonance from the show.
The ED is one of the best I've ever seen, it's slow and reflective, and beautifully animated and directed. The song transitions from subdued rapping, to a nearly silent passage, before abruptly transitioning into a loud instrumental closing section. I’m not familiar with music terminology, so I can’t explain precisely what's going on here, but I do know that it's amazing.
This anime is currently more overlooked than even Odd Taxi ever was, and is as much of an anime of the year contender.
Heike Monogatari is not for everyone, but I do strongly encourage giving it a shot, especially if you’re into Japanese History, historical epics, or the previous work of Naoko Yamada.
Mury0kush0
This anime made me question whether I have prosopagnosia (face blindness) Lol. As someone with no background knowledge whatsoever this anime was very very very confusing….11 eps also took me more than an year to finish mainly because I didn’t catch up after a few eps while it was airing and then I forgot the storyline and my second rewatch took me couple of months and now I’m just confusion. I love historical genre hence I didn’t drop it but if you aren’t into the genre then just skip it. If I speak about the art, then some characters look really alike and there arethese two baldies whom I couldn’t differentiate when either of them appeared. The characters name are your typical historical names like taira-no-shigemori, Fujiwara-no-narichika etc…and it was so difficult to follow who was who. I really have no clue what was going on. As a response one might say that there’s a novel or book about it which has details etc but honestly that isn’t a good argument for this. I’m here to watch anime directly and not read a whole load of backstory beforehand when I’m not even that invested.
I’m still rating it a 6 because overall it was fine, soundtracks are great (by composer of chainsaw man so you can expect similar soundtracks)….art is kinda unique but it isn’t bad…animation is fluid. Characters aren’t memorable except for biwa….I couldn’t even differentiate others for gods sake, all ladies looked the same all men looked the same and all grandfathers looked the same rip.
maybe the plot is really good too, it’s not that I disliked it…. I just couldn’t understand it…
dograzor
There are some powerful visuals and moments throughout, but there is a noticeable dropoff after the first few episodes, and it quickly becomes a narrative and tonal mess in the middle section in particular before recovering somewhat in the last couple of episodes. This is only partially explained by the show's assumed knowledge of the events depicted, which in any case could be covered by an hour or two of familiarization, as the narrative becomes bogged down by repeated exposition that goes nowhere and seemingly irrelevant side plots along with poor characterization work with little in the way of nuance or narrative tension developed. What is greatis the Biwa playing, this is the absolute highlight of the show, as is the visual presentation, although some of the montage sequences were a noticeable drop in standards even here.
It's a very ambitious effort, but the combination of writer/director/studio seemed out of their depth in handling a story of this nature - even if not an adaptation per se - and production issues no doubt played a part.
Very much YMMV in this one I'd say, suggestion would be to start and watch the first few scenes which are some of the strongest in the series - if they do not hook you, the rest of the series won't, and if they do and you can sink into the atmosphere and mood - and the meandering and outright silly at times plot - then it could be an interesting watch.
Harisrox
Naoko Yamada never fails to surprise me with delivering projects better than her last ones, it's like everytime she works on something, she levels up. This time rather than her usual genres, she took on historical genre and gave it a refreshing narrative through a short girl with weird eyes named "Biwa". Heikei Monogatari is a popular story in Japan (which tells the story of the rise and fall of the Taira clan during the Genpei War) due to that the series had very fast pacing like it was intended to skip stuff which would turn out to be unimportant to the whole narrative, whichmakes me sad that even Yoshitsune didn't get much screentime as the story ended.
And I loved the visuals... as always... took 650+ screencaps. The colors were vibrant, the style was consistent and the details were highlighted.
Overall, Heike Monogatari is a worthy watch, it can easily get you invested in the story and maybe motivate you enough to study more about the actual events of the history. Tho I can't say it's for everyone due to being historical/war/drama, but if you like this genre then there are some great live action movies directed by Akira Kurusawa and Masaka Kobayashi which shouldn't be slept on.
gabu_rieru
I could rate my recommendation of this anime as a 7 and a "Mixed Feelings" but I will give this anime the benefit of the doubt. Heike Monogatari is another beautiful gem from Science Saru but I feel that I could have gotten better out of the story. I can't blame her for the fact that at times I found myself totally lost in the story, but it's also a fact that this one isn't such an easy anime to watch. Any lapse of attention and you are at the mercy of the story. Its first 3 minutes are fantastic, it presents an anime splendidly and raisesits hype to the heights, but I feel that these 3 minutes sell an anime different from the one we will watch over time. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I, in fact, would like the anime to be the same as its presentation, which was impactful, tragic, suffocating and beautiful. The anime as a whole is light with its characters but dense with information, getting to be boring at certain times.
For those who watched the 11 episodes in a row like me, it is difficult to keep the focus 100% on the story, but for those who watched it weekly or paused, it must have been easier to digest the story.
The anime does have its epic moments, especially in the final episodes, reminiscent of the sensations experienced in the first moments of episode 1. And these moments are enhanced with a great studio production. Animation and soundtrack here are gold. They may cause strangeness but this difference, in my view, is something positive. We need a variety of animations in the anime and here is a full plate for those looking for that.
In addition, I highly recommend this story, as long as you watch it focused and dedicated. It can be quite an experience.
IcarusxIcarus
Heike Monogatari is an anime adaptation of the 13th century historical epic, “The Tale of the Heike”. It is a story that serves as a cultural touchstone to the Japanese as the Bible does in the West. For a text as important as this, an adaptation into animation would seem a very arduous task if one were to attempt a totally faithful adaptation paying attention to the minutiae of the story. However, Naoko Yamada and the staff at Science SARU had something else in mind… I greatly appreciate the alternate approach that they took to adapting this epic. Their addition to the story, the character ofBiwa, serves as a fairly ethereal figure who exists outside of the story, as well as inside of it. I find Biwa’s addition to be a very nice touch, as she essentially justifies the fact that this is, frankly, a clearly abridged version of the story. To me, watching Heike Monogatari really does feel as though you’re being told a story by someone who was there, and who knew these characters, that someone being Biwa. This is why there is more time spent giving the characters strong personalities, and showing their relationships, as opposed to depicting battles of a grand scale in meticulous detail. The entire story is viewed through the very subjective lens that is Biwa, which I believe heightens the empathy that is felt for the characters.
Furthermore, it is clear to me that Reiko Yoshida’s screenplay intentionally took liberties with the original story in order to play to the strengths of the creative staff. Heike Monogatari genuinely feels like a work of art, as opposed to a clear and concise story. This is bolstered by the absolutely gorgeous art design that gives it the quality of a classical Japanese screen painting unfolding before your very eyes. This is magnificently tied together by a stunning directorial effort from Naoko Yamada. She continues to develop her style, bringing it to new heights at times, all while refining hallmarks of her directorial work that are as strong as ever. All of this considered, Heike Monogatari serves as an adaptation in the same way that a film such as Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” does. That being that it prioritises the artistry of the work above all else.
Finally, it is hard not to read into a story depicting a girl powerlessly watching everyone that she loves pass away considering the context of what led to Naoko Yamada leaving Kyoto Animation to direct this. The tragedy that snatched away the lives of over 30 precious individuals will weigh on Yamada for the rest of her life, which is why the final episode of Heike Monogatari is particularly poignant. It serves as a wonderful meditation on life, death, and grieving. The way that it depicts the difficulty of trying to find peace in the wake of true despair is unbelievably touching. The emotional strength and conviction that it must have taken Yamada to convey these themes is immense. I did not think it was possible, but I have gained an even greater respect for Naoko Yamada as an artist, as well as human being.
Heike Monogatari is an incredible work of art that is teeming with the vision and feelings of its creative staff, despite being an adaptation of a historical text. Personally, I find it highly doubtful that there will ever be another anime like this again.
Firechick12012
So...this anime literally came right out of nowhere. Announced in September 2021, premiering not even weeks afterward, it caught a lot of people by surprise, especially the staff behind it. Directed by Naoko Yamada, who left KyoAni to join Science SARU which did the animation, with a screenplay by Reiko Yoshida, adapting one of Japan's oldest pieces of literature. I was all in. I mean, one of anime's most beloved female directors working on a show that promised beautiful animation and gripping political intrigue, taking place in the Heian era and starring a female lead? How could I not want to watch it? In anendless sea of generic ecchi and bottom-of-the-barrel isekai that get churned out every year, I was damn ecstatic to watch Heike Monogatari. It's no secret that my favorite anime of all time is Shounen Onmyouji, which is also based on literature that takes place during the Heian era and has supernatural leanings (Though Shounen Onmyouji is based on light novels). I was sure I was going to absolutely adore Heike Monogatari. But in case the rating didn't clue you in, I might have set my expectations too high.
Nobody knows who wrote the original Tale of the Heike, though this particular anime is based on the modern Japanese rendition by one Hideo Furukawa, and Heike Monogatari is the first animated adaptation of the epic novel. The anime's story goes as follows: Biwa is a young girl who has the gift of seeing into the future, but is told by her father to hide it. When her father is killed by the Taira clan's personal enforcers, Biwa is left an orphan until a member of the Taira (also known as the Heike), Shigemori, hears of her plight. Taking pity on her and because he himself can see spirits of the dead, therefore seeing in her a kindred spirit, he adopts her and makes her part of his family as a means of atoning for what his family did to her. But Biwa sees visions of the Taira clan meeting a bloody, violent end. Being a child and unable to do anything in her position, she can do naught but watch as the Heike's decisions and desire for power lead to their own downfall.
As much as I want to praise this anime up the wazoo, and believe me, you have no idea how much I want to, I can no longer deny its two biggest flaws. One is that the story Heike Monogatari tells is way too big to fit into a piddly eleven episodes. It's a big, sprawling epic that spans years and years, from the perspectives of a ton of different characters and showing how their actions directly or indirectly lead up to the great Genpei War. A story like this would be better told in, at the very least, 26 episodes, or at most, probably 39 or 52. Remember when anime that had that many episodes were the norm? And not just shounen anime? Because of how compressed the adaptation is, the pacing is very fast, leaving you with very little time to process all the big events that happen back to back to back, like a bunch of entitled soldiers burning a temple because the monks refused to let them use their bath, or Kiso no Yoshinaka razing the capital with his army for all it's worth. That being said, Heike Monogatari hardly leaves a moment for the audience to get bored, so there's always something going on to catch the viewer's interest. But that can also come with its own set of issues.
One of which is Heike Monogatari's second biggest flaw: This anime absolutely expects the viewer to be familiar with the original source material. It just throws a bunch of characters, names, and events at you in huge infodumps and exposition diatribes without much in the way of context, and doesn't even try to make an effort to allow the audience to get familiar with them, or show them in an organic manner. As someone who hasn't read the original novel, I was often very confused by the fact that Heike Monogatari seemed to randomly introduce new characters and situations in every episode at a breakneck pace, and even after several episodes, I could barely keep track of them. It doesn't help that many of the characters were hard to tell apart at times. Like, come on. I dare anyone to tell me they can tell Shigemori and Tokitada apart, especially since the former's left eye is such a subtle color difference from the other that it's still hard to tell who's who! And because of the anime's desire to just throw characters at you a mile a minute, any attempts to flesh them out come off as hollow because show's breakneck pacing doesn't allow itself to really delve into who they are as people, what makes them tick, why we should care about them, or even their states of mind as certain things happen. That being said, I don't want to be a Negative Nancy, and there are some characters who are very well fleshed out, like Biwa, Shigemori, Sukemori, and Tokuko. I found those four to be the most compelling, as we get to see them grow and change over the course of the series, even if I wish several scenes they starred in could have been presented with more focus and importance than they were. For example, Biwa's search for her mother and the end result of it is treated as mundane and an afterthought, and you'd think something like that would be hugely significant considering Biwa's, well, the main character. Koremori in particular was also a victim of this, as he could have been a more central character considering all the pressure he had on his shoulders, but the anime flip-flops between characters every other scene, making it hard to flesh them out in ways they deserve.
This is a more minor flaw, but sometimes the show has cases of pretty severe mood whiplash. For example, in episode 1, when Shigemori first discovers Biwa, she tearfully begs him to kill her...and in the very next scene, his maidservants are cartoonishly gawking at how poorly dressed she is, complete with cutesy music and cartoony expressions. Granted, this only happens twice, but they did feel pretty jarring to me. Of course, that being said, Heike Monogatari does have a lot to offer even with its flaws holding it down. For one, the animation is definitely unlike most anime and it's really a visual marvel. Naoko Yamada has always had a liking for live-action camera techniques, digital tools, and visual symbolism, light leaks, and so on, and a lot of the techniques she uses here really work, like depth of field, bloom lighting, and chromatic aberration. Every shot is packed with detail and used with purpose, from the sleek movement of the characters in motion to the impeccably watercolor/ukiyo-e style backgrounds conveying an almost otherworldly wonder about it. Pack that with a stellar voice cast and an eclectic but still mostly fitting soundtrack and you've got a recipe for greatness in terms of both sight and sound. So yeah, please don't think I hate Heike Monogatari, because I don't. Even though it's plagued by a lot of problems that prevent it from being considered a true masterpiece in every sense of the word, it still does have a lot to offer, and it's clear Yamada-san and her team put a lot of love, care, and effort into it. It didn't quite succeed, as it's short episode length leaves Heike Monogatari unable to live up to the huge story it wanted to tell, but as far as Yamada-san's first foray at Science Saru goes, I still think she hit a home run, and we still have ourselves a relatively good series here. Hell, if I was made to choose between this and the 800 bottom-of-the-barrel isekai that Japan likes to churn out, I'd pick Heike, no contest.
By the way, there is something else I'd like to mention as well: Just because an anime simply depicts problematic material, especially in the context of the setting and time period in which it takes place, that absolutely does not mean the show is promoting or encouraging it. Some dude on MAL gave Heike a low rating because they were under the impression that because it dared to show Tokuko's nine-year-old sister being married off to an adult man, a practice which, while definitely unacceptable in modern times, was considered commonplace back in the Heian era, that somehow the show was glamorizing or encouraging pedophilia. Uh...no. Heike Monogatari is absolutely NOT condoning pedophilia. If it was trying to do so, it would have made Moriko's marriage to an older man out to be a good thing, and there is nothing in the anime that does anything of the like. In fact, the anime subtly shows that Moriko's life turned out terrible when she was forced to marry. Seriously, people need to look more into the time period in which Heike Monogatari takes place. In the Heian era, women and children had absolutely no rights, agency, or autonomy. They had their lives dictated by others, whether it be family members or their husbands, and were forced to be submissive to those in power, even if women had positions of power, and any deviation from the norm would have either branded them as a pariah or gotten them killed, and even Heike Monogatari understands this. As someone who studied Japanese history in college, I can tell you for certain that Heike's depiction of both the time period and the questionable ethics behind marrying off underage girls for the sake of political alliances is fairly accurate. Besides, if that person thinks Heike is actively encouraging pedophilia or sexual assault, they ought to watch shows like Kodomo no Jikan, Daimidaler, every anime that sexualizes teenage girls (Which is about 80% of them, and Heike is not one of them), or pretty much every lolicon-centered hentai ever. Or that one movie called American Beauty, which is about a married, middle-aged man actively lusting over his teenaged daughter's best friend and has uncensored, underage nudity, and the movie outright encouraging his behavior. Make of that what you will.
With that, I think Heike Monogatari can be considered a flawed masterpiece. It really tries to be something good, and it is good, but because of how dense it is, I don't recommend this as baby's first grown-up anime. Not by a long shot.
simonitro
It's really hard to not try to dislike some Anime shows because there are so much effert when into it and try to appreciate what its worth, however, I cannot really lie to myself and tell how I feel about "Heike Monogatori" or "The Heike Story". At the beginning of this show, it had so much potential to enjoy because of its unique art and animation style. It doesn't look like your traditional Anime in the sense... big eyes, big expressions etc... and that's what made it to stand out and make me want to follow through but besides that, it gets quite confusing themore you keep on watching.
So, we're introduced to the main lead, Biwa, who her father get killed by the the Heike which is a clan. One of the members takes her in and start living with them, she can predict the future because each eye has a different color. Coincidentally, the guy who takes her in also has the same thing to him name "Shigemori". From there, we see the rise and the fall of this clan. This is what I could gather from what I'm trying to understand from the series.
***Bit of a Spoiler here***
In 3... 2... 1...
So, this guy, Shigemori, dies on the 3rd/4th episode and this is when the series goes off the rails. The series doesn't help its case when you have to wait from week to another, you'd be asking yourself when another character is introduced or was there in the first place going: "Who's that again?" before your head decides to wrap "Oh! It's that guy, okay!"
Even after finishing it, it is hard to remember what happened but all I know it's that the characters start dying as Biwa predicts that. Her character seems like some sort of spirit that interacts with them and once someone dies, she goes: "I will tell your story".
In the end of it, I really wanted to like this show more because on who's involved and the art/animation look amazingly unique and the characters feel like those old Japanese paintings coming to life by living their lives and going to war but aside from that, it does feel boring, confusing and even if you understood the story, it does feel like slog to go through. Out of the Anime rotations that I'm going through, this is my least looking forward to watch out of the series that I'm watching. So, I guess, 5/10 feels about right for this show.
DaiichiDaiman
A historical anime without date cards and nameplates for new characters was definitely an interesting choice, but after a difficult start, Heike Monogatari becomes one of the most mature and engaging shows I've watched. The music is incredible and imagery, which has a wavy, dreamy feeling that suits the subject so well, is both provocative and subtle. Without making this review about comparing the show to other anime, I can't help but recommend it for anyone who wants to branch out from the usual Bakufu and Sengoku Jidai period pieces and enjoy something that's off the beaten track, more consistent in its tone and doesn'thandhold the viewer through history.
